Detroit Free Press admits 13 gun reform bills offered by Michigan Democrats would not have stopped MSU killings, and that it doesn't matter

 It's pure emotional posturing which ignores the emotional posturing which caused the tragedy in the first place.

The progressive prosecutor could have charged the future killer with weapons violations which would have prevented him from legally buying the new weapons used in this crime.

Existing laws might indeed have prevented the crime, if only liberals had followed them. But misplaced feelings of white guilt overrode doing what the law demanded.

Republicans better man up because Democrats sure won't.

Here:

If these laws would not have stopped this shooting, well. They might stop the next one.

Madcow's ratings were all that mattered

Freedom of the press: The press is not an "institution", it's a business, usually a business of lies. And people pay to be lied to. That's the real scandal.

Former PIMCO wheeler-dealer is against freedom of the financial press: Why, you might sell before he does

Jeff Flake's "free press" hardly covered Hillary's health problems but is obsessed with finding something wrong with Trump's

At least now we know that Senator Jeff Flake believes everything he reads in the newspaper

Speech here.

"Of course, a major difference between politicians and the free press is that the press usually corrects itself when it gets something wrong. Politicians don't."

Well har-dee har har har at the last person alive to believe in the free press. Check that. John Kasich was pretty darn moved to receive the endorsement of The New York Times. But, come to think of it, Kasich is another failed politician just like Flake. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Meanwhile The New York Post is still just a buck. Get 'em while they're hot.

Useless Steve Gruber Show shields Rep. Tim Walberg from heat for Cromnibus vote

Steve Gruber had his opportunity this morning to let Congressman Tim Walberg feel the heat for his vote last week which helped move Cromnibus through the Congress, and instead shielded him by talking about anything but that.

1320 WILS' Michael Cohen had a much better interview of the Congressman here on Monday addressing the issue in depth, but alas it was not a talk show which takes callers' questions and comments.

They call it freedom of the press in America, but its organs make sure that they continue to protect the liberal status quo for obscene government spending and its representatives, because they PROFIT from it.

Justin Amash represents DC's Club For Growth, not Michigan's Third District

Justin Amash must be worried about his reelection prospects.

Amash is blanketing Michigan's 3rd Congressional District with a barage of anti-Brian Ellis radio ads and mailings even though Amash claims an overwhelming lead against his humble opponent based on his own polling data. Why waste the money if he is so far ahead? Well, maybe it's not exactly his money.

What the voters probably don't realize is how much of Amash's anti-Ellis attack is financed by the Club For Growth, a libertarian organization founded by a former editor of The Wall Street Journal who is now employed by The Heritage Foundation, one Steve Moore (Heritage, it will be remembered, gave us ObamaCare long before Obama came along, as their answer to HillaryCare). Like Heritage, Club For Growth is based in Washington, DC, not in Michigan's Third. Amash gets the benefit of their negative attack ads while being able to claim he has nothing to do with them.

So far in the campaign, Club For Growth appears to be responsible for almost $400,000 of spending in attack ads against Brian Ellis, who by contrast is in large measure underwriting his own campaign with a remarkably similar amount of his own money. It is notable that Ellis is pledging to overturn ObamaCare, which in Michigan is causing health care workers to lose their jobs, while showcasing his endorsements by Michigan Right To Life, veterans groups and other conservatives upset with Amash's failure to walk the conservative talk.

Amash has an excuse on Facebook for every vote which he has failed to deliver on behalf of social and economic conservatives in his own district, just as Obama can always point to someone or something for why he never gets anything accomplished as president.

Republicans ought to consider the similarity and ask themselves if those two aren't really just cut from the same cloth.

h/t Detroit Free Press

Justin Amash's pal John Conyers finally reaches the level of his incompetence

The 85 year old congressman famous for not reading bills because they're too dang complicated, preferring lighter fare with pictures like Playboy Magazine on crowded flights, has failed to get enough signatures to appear on the ballot after serving in Congress since 1965.

The Detroit Free Press reports:

Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett ruled earlier this week that Conyers’ petitions were insufficient to qualify for the ballot because at least three people gathering signatures were not properly registered to vote, a requirement of state law. Congressional candidates are required to have at least 1,000 valid signatures. Conyers turned in 2,000 and more than 700 were disqualified for a variety of reasons. Another 644 were thrown out because the circulators weren’t registered voters, leaving Conyers with only 592 valid signatures.

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It makes you wonder whether Conyers ever read the Amash-Conyers anti-NSA amendment in the first place, which was defeated 205-217, or whether Justin Amash's bi-partisan work with this patsy was nothing more than a cynical ploy.

Crony Socialism: Fed Profits On College Student Loans Rank Third Behind Exxon-Mobil And Apple!

Or is that socialist cronyism?

Anyway, those thirsty blood suckers in the federal government made $41.3 billion off the nation's college student loan program in fiscal 2013, according to the Detroit Free Press, here:

It’s a higher profit level than all but two companies in the world: Exxon Mobil cleared $44.9 billion in 2012, and Apple cleared $41.7 billion.

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That's not quite right, however.

In 2012 the profits thrown off from massive numbers of government bonds and mortgage backed securities "purchased" by the Federal Reserve and returned to the Treasury by the Fed were more than double that, as reported here last January:

The Federal Reserve sent a record $88.9 billion in profits to the Treasury Department in 2012 as it reaped gains from the unconventional programs it launched to spur economic growth.

Last year's remittance to Treasury topped the previous record of $79.3 billion in 2010, Fed records show.

Libertarian Leads Profanity-Laced Demonstration In Middleborough, MA

Once again proving that libertarianism has nothing to do with conservatism.

The story is here:

The protest rally was organized by Adam Kokesh, a libertarian who publishes podcasts online from a Virginia studio. He says police can "steal from you if they don't like what's coming out of your mouth."

Remaining Hutaree On Trial Cut Deal With Government Over Weapons Charges

The Detroit Free Press has the details here:

The Hutaree terror case officially ended today with the last two defendants cutting deals with the government, two days after their five codefendants were cleared of all charges by a federal judge. ... [T]hey pleaded guilty to possession of a machine gun that is punishable up to 10 years in prison. The judge agreed to release the two on bond. ... Under the terms of the plea agreements, Stone Sr. faces 33 to 48 months in prison. Joshua Stone faces 27-33 months. They will be sentenced in August. ... Both men have been jailed since their arrests in 2010.

My hunch is these two guys get credit for time served and a long parole.

And, of course, as convicted felons they will not be able to possess firearms ever again.

Much more at the link.

Hutaree Defense Maintains FBI Plant Incited Escalation to Bomb-Making

The Detroit Free Press reports here:

The defense argues it was the FBI agent who introduced "violent explosives" to the group in an effort to incite greater criminal activity.

"Your agent moved the ball down the field," [defense attorney] Swor said in court Thursday.

Feds Try To Establish Link Between Opposition To ObamaCare And Hutaree Conspiracy

The Hutaree were arrested within days of the passing of ObamaCare and in the wake of protests over it around the country, alleged threats of violence and even isolated acts of vandalism.

To some, such as Monica Crowley and to us, it seemed the arrests were conveniently timed to quell the anger, a shot across the bow of the people that they should expect to be met by federal force if necessary.

And what is ObamaCare if not federal force? You will either buy health insurance, or pay a fine.

The Detroit Free Press has the full story here, with this interesting detail:

According to trial testimony, health care is one of the issues that fired up the Hutaree.

As defendant Joshua Stone said in one recording played in court Monday: "I look forward to us shootin' this fall ... cause if they push that health care, we're goin' in."

Potential Juror Number 382 in Hutaree Trial Sticks Up For 4th Amendment

The Detroit Free Press has the story here:

The last person added to the final jury pool said he is skeptical about police and paid informants going undercover to spy on people.

His views struck a nerve with the prosecution, whose key witnesses include a federal agent and paid confidential informant who infiltrated the Hutaree group, secretly recorded conversations with members, then reported everything they saw and heard back to the FBI. ...

He said he believes spying on people is an invasion of privacy. 

“You’re basically paying someone to lie and deceive people. I don’t think that’s right,” said the potential juror.

The country could use a lot more jurors 382.

Lawyer for Joshua Clough of the Hutaree Militia Turned His Client for The State

If you were 29 and your lawyer offered you 5 instead of life after 20 months in the slammer, what the hell do you think you would do?

On Monday, nearly two years later, Clough cut a deal with the government in admitting to his role in the plot -- a confession that will land him in prison for five years. The deal spared him a potential life sentence.

"This was a difficult choice. I guided him to this decision, and he's comfortable with it," said Clough's lawyer, Randall Roberts, who wouldn't say whether Clough is cooperating against the remaining defendants.

This is why they don't release you on bond, so they can grind you down, working on you day after day, week after week, month after month, until you crack.

None dare call it tyranny: "the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial."

Read the whole story in The Detroit Free Press (link).

Talking Tough While Armed Is Now A Crime of Violence in Hutaree Verdict

Nevermind no actual crime of violence ever occurred.

The plea bargain merely establishes that this poorly advised misguided soul mistakenly agrees that intemperate talk of a plot while armed is itself a crime of violence.

What material difference such talk makes whether armed with a "gun" or merely with one's two arms is now brought into question. The 2nd Amendment is what is under attack here, in order to get at the 1st.

He should get a new lawyer.

The Detroit Free Press has the best coverage (link) of the plea bargain reached with Joshua Clough, 29, who is set to spend five on ice and testify against his brethren:

Joshua John Clough, 29, formerly of Blissfield Township, pleaded guilty today to the use of a firearm during, and in relation to, a crime of violence. ...

Clough went on to admit that, as part of their plot, the Hutaree conducted military-style training in Lenawee County, where they engaged in weapon proficiency drills, patrolling and reconnaissance exercises, and demonstrations on how to assemble and use explosives.

Clough admitted that around Feb. 20, 2010, he participated in a Hutaree training exercise that focused on an upcoming, covert reconnaissance exercise, which was scheduled for April 2010.

During this training, Clough used and carried a firearm.

Perhaps the NRA should take up the case and argue that carrying a firearm is a form of speech, which it most certainly is. Just ask anyone deterred from a crime by the sight of one, as happens everyday.

Obama's FCC Internet Commissars Impose Doctrinaire Anti-Capitalism

In other words, Marxism masquerading as "net neutrality," as John Fund for The Wall Street Journal makes plain here:

Over 300 House and Senate members have signed a letter opposing FCC Internet regulation, and there will undoubtedly be even less support in the next Congress.

Yet President Obama, long an ardent backer of net neutrality, is ignoring both Congress and adverse court rulings, especially by a federal appeals court in April that the agency doesn't have the power to enforce net neutrality. He is seeking to impose his will on the Internet through the executive branch. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, a former law school friend of Mr. Obama, has worked closely with the White House on the issue. Official visitor logs show he's had at least 11 personal meetings with the president.

The net neutrality vision for government regulation of the Internet began with the work of Robert McChesney, a University of Illinois communications professor who founded the liberal lobby Free Press in 2002. Mr. McChesney's agenda? "At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies," he told the website SocialistProject in 2009. "But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control."

A year earlier, Mr. McChesney wrote in the Marxist journal Monthly Review that "any serious effort to reform the media system would have to necessarily be part of a revolutionary program to overthrow the capitalist system itself." Mr. McChesney told me in an interview that some of his comments have been "taken out of context." He acknowledged that he is a socialist and said he was "hesitant to say I'm not a Marxist."

"You'd think that this thing was some Bolshevik plot." -- Barack Obama, January 29, 2010